6th of May 2014 .....

"hello..? yes ..Shankar da ..yes tell me , ohh okay ..it has come ? ..yeaah I will be there, just would finish my packing". As I hung my laptop bag behind and held the carton on my hand few of the kind souls from SDS-433, 434 came inside and each of them took one one bag. The LAN cable is dangling, the cooler lays still, the table in which we cut birthday cakes had nothing on it, and the corridor looks like a morgue. The driver is ready and the bags are inside and the few kind souls are staring at them. Even the security guard looks like a messiah to me.  

The car glided across. Veggies lay empty. Heritage is empty. There is no one in CCD. Tikka, our head -quarters is decorated with vacant chairs. So much for the grades and ..Ex`s..and A`s and plum job offers..PPO`s ..PPI`s ..competitions, case studies, all have been put to rest with a so called "No Dues Certificate and couple of signatures".It was not the sinking feeling that is making me sad. It was the same old realization that nothing, or no one is actually permanent in life. Happiness comes only in bits and pieces. In these two years I have seen a rainbow of emotions. From being happy to being very happy to being super excited to sad to being very sad to being almost hapless. I felt like a survivor. Sometimes I felt like a rockstar. But, what was more important was that it was all happening together. Together with a bunch of aspiring minds just like me. Our goals may be different, our means may be different. We all want to have more, more of everything possible. But all we actually want is happiness. The secret of happiness is freedom, and freedom equals to IIT Kharagpur. Freedom equals to bicycle rides. Freedom equals to spending hours and hours sipping tea in Tikka`s. Freedom equals to dinner at Nehru`s. Freedom equals to having Chocolate-banana shake. Freedom equals to being a VGSoMite.

An MBA can serve different purposes to different people. Some people need leadership, some need a team building, some want to learn group dynamics and god knows what. I feel its plain and simple togetherness. A sense of belonging for each other.

What we need to hold this togetherness is more than Facebook or whats app.It is the sheer willingness to be in touch!!

   

A Normal day ...

“Dude get up ...get up dude  ...it is already 7:50 .....Aniket ...now I am putting off the fan??” ...” yeah Prakash ...I am I am.....Please put it on...  ..” I said hurriedly, realizing that my morning sleep had come to an end. I really did not want to count the number of hours for which I had hugged my pillow last night. It would have made me feel sleepier. But I knew I had to hurry up, and it had to be faster than yesterday. My Harley (that’s what I call my cycle) has not been keeping well for the past two days. It had developed a problem in the front spoke, one more day and I will have to put it in the Intensive care unit beside the MMM  canteen. My punctual roomie had already left as I was making life easier with some pepsodent and the toothbrush. Plunging three slices of buttered bread into the glass of warm milk and devouring it like a refugee; I somehow made my way to the lecture scheduled at 8:15 am. If you are thinking this is too early ...wait to face the music during the winters. Oh yes. I believe my school, my parents & my two years in TATA have been completely unsuccessful in making me punctual. But as always, I am trying. I believe that being punctual is like a habit. It is like crossing a busy street carefully, some people do it safely, some just don’t. It was just about time and I just managed to enter our classroom - Vgsom-E101. Classes hog the limelight here till 12:30 pm. Two 15 minute breaks in the middle are god-gifted. Most of us flock to the Nescafe corner for tea & snacks, some talented ones also take time out for a puff.  Well I do nothing. Believe me, it is a stress buster.

Talking of stress, MBA actually has been the management of this very factor. The day unfolds after we complete lunch and brace ourselves for the second half from 2 to 6:15. As the sun sets in the boundary of this 2000 acre campus ...Finance, strategy, marketing and operations, everyone already had a fair share in our minds. And there is still plenty more to come as we cycle back to our room. Assignments are waiting to be completed and presentations ready to be given. Knowing how to solve a case study has been a case in itself. Some enthusiastic people also happen to squeeze in some time for their respective clubs and committees. Speaking of clubs, Vgsom boasts of several student run cubs. Marketing, Media interaction (CMI as we know it), Finance, Alumni, you name it and we have one!!... If you thought this was enough, wait, because for the sporty kind our there we have the 2.2 running track, gymnasium, and “Sports-comm.”. Be bored or don’t be, its your choice.

As the darkness reels over the hostel like a big black carpet, our eyes keep devouring the chunks of news, charts, data and presentations that stare at us from our laptops. The right corner of the eye is still hovering for the Gmail pings & FB updates on the forthcoming guest lecture or the upcoming summer placements. The subject representatives keep a track of everything; but our mind always needs to be on its toes. You procrastinate and the obligations keep piling on top of each other creating a pyramid that could fall apart in the mid/end semester. Hunger is the occasional visitor as the clock keeps inching towards the next day. The VS, JCB, Lallu (a.k.a LLR hall) night canteens are all geared up with tea, chocolate shakes and cheese sandwiches. Yes the list continues upto the point you get confused and just order something your friend has ordered.

It’s half past one. The presentations are finally complete; the case on “Starbucks” has been read. As the smoke emanating from the tea swirls up and reaches for the night sky a thought comes to my mind ...”As a manager you must find time for everything ...and learn to put everything in its time”.